Things were looking bleak for the Las Vegas Raiders this season, but that changed when the team got the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. This year’s class is considered relatively weak at quarterback, but there’s one player at the position who appears worthy of the No. 1 pick.
Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza just capped off a Heisman-winning season with a National Championship. It’s widely expected that he has already cemented himself as the Raiders’ pick at No. 1.
However, not everybody is buying into that narrative. While many pundits like Mendoza a lot, there are some who believe he doesn’t have the athletic ability to be considered a can’t-miss No. 1 pick. He’s got a good arm, is really intelligent, his teammates love him and he’s 6-foot-5. On the surface, he’s what a lot of teams want at quarterback.
NBC Sports’ Dan Patrick went so far as to say the Raiders should not draft him.
“I don’t know if Fernando Mendoza is a great quarterback,” Patrick said on the “Dan Patrick Show.”
“I think he’s a great story, but once again, I would not draft him number one if I were the Raiders.”
Raiders Still Expected to Draft Mendoza
Patrick isn’t the first media type to say that the Raiders shouldn’t take Mendoza. The roster has many needs, and drafting a quarterback isn’t going to fix that.
That said, a quarterback can do a lot to fix a team. There will continue to be suggestions that the Raiders trade down in order to add more picks to fill out the rest of the roster, but it seems unlikely that’s what the team will do.
In Ayrton Ostly’s latest mock draft for USA Today, he projects the Raiders to select Mendoza at No. 1.
“Mendoza led Indiana to the program’s first national championship and showcased exactly why he’ll be the No. 1 pick in the draft,” Ostly wrote. “Las Vegas has lots of needs all over the roster but can’t pass up on a new franchise quarterback to start a new regime.”
Why Raiders Should Draft Mendoza
The suggestion that the Raiders don’t have the talent to set a young quarterback up for success is mostly true. The team does have a good left tackle in Kolton Miller, but the offensive line needs work. The Raiders also don’t have a single dependable wide receiver.
However, they do have Brock Bowers, who might be the best tight end in the NFL when he’s healthy. They also have running back Ashton Jeanty, who has a chance to be a superstar.
The Raiders have only had the No. 1 pick two other times in the history of the franchise. It’s not an easy asset to acquire. If the Raiders pass on Mendoza this year, who knows when they’ll have a chance to draft another quarterback?
It’s easy to say that the Raiders will be bad next year with Geno Smith at quarterback and could have a top-five pick in 2027, but even in a terrible season, Las Vegas was very close to losing the No. 1 pick. It’s a lot easier to build around a star quarterback than to build a stack roster and find a star quarterback later.
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